ZGMF-X10A Freedom Gundam
The ZGMF-X10A Freedom Gundam 'is a prototype high-performance long-range assault mobile suit developed by ZAFT in CE 71, and is notable for having been the world's first mobile suit to be equipped with a nuclear fission reactor. It is also known for its prominent role in ending the First Junius War as part of the Three-Ships Alliance. Technology & Combat Characteristics The Freedom Gundam is primarily designed for ranged combat and thus features a large number of long range weapons, consisting of a pair of plasma beam cannons built into its wings, a pair of railguns mounted on its hips, a handheld beam rifle, and a pair of CIWS gunds in its head. In addition to these it is armed with a pair of beam sabers, which can be docked together at the pommel to form a single dual-bladed beam saber. The Freedom has several defining characteristics that contributed to make it the most powerful mobile suit of its day: Its wings, which are designed to be able to assume a configuration referred to as '''HiMAT: Hi'gh 'M'obility 'A'erial 'T'actics. The wings are designed with a large number of slender integrated thrusters, which when the wings are fully spread can be ignited, exponentially increasing the suit's already high mobility. Its cockpit is further designed with a spherical panoramic monitor, resulting in a significantly wider field of vision compared to ordinary mobile suits, and its targeting systems are sophisticated enough to allow the Freedom to simultaneously target and open fire on large numbers of enemy units. What makes the Freedom truly remarkable however is its power source: an ultracompact nuclear reactor, whose output is more than four times higher than that of the GAT-X105 Strike, at the time one of the most advanced mobile suits in existence. This is possible in spite of the presence of Neutron Jammers, which prevent nuclear fission by restricting the movement of free electrons, thanks to the Neutron Jammer Canceller, which renders the Freedom immune to the N-Jammers' effects. So advanced is the Freedom that even four years after its introduction, it remains one of the most powerful mobile suits in existence. Armaments ;*MMI-GAU2 "Picus" 76mm CIWS x2 :As with most other mobile suits, the Freedom features two head-mounted MMI-GAU2 "Picus" 76mm CIWS guns, which are used to shoot down incoming missiles and enemy units at close range. ;*MA-M20 "Lupus" Beam Rifle ;*MA-M01 "Lacerta" Beam Saber x2 :The only close combat weapons of the Freedom are two MA-M01 "Lacerta" beam sabers, which are stored in the hips when not in use. A unique characteristic of these beam sabers is the ability to combine the two hilts by docking them together at the pommel into a single, twin-bladed beam sword. This unique style of wielding the beam sabers allows it to engage multiple enemies in melee combat with ease. ;*M100 "Balaena" Plasma beam cannon x2 :Another weapon specifically designed for use in Full Burst mode for destroying enemies, are the two plasma beam cannons. These cannons are the most powerful weapons of the suit and mounted over the shoulders when in use. ;*MMI-M15 "Xiphas" rail cannon x2 :Mounted laterally to each side of the Freedom's waist, these powerful railguns fold outwards to fire. These weapons are powerful enough that successive shots are capable of damaging even Phase-Shift armor. System Features ;*High Mobility Aerial Tactics (HiMAT) System :The Freedom features a unique HiMAT mode for superior speed and agility. This system functions by fully spreading the wings, which are composed of a total of ten separate components, and igniting the numerous slender thrusters that are built into them. This exponentially increases the Freedom's already high speed and maneuverability. ;*Multi-Lock Weapons Targeting System :The Freedom's sophisticated targeting system can be used to simultaneously acquire and lock on to numerous targets simultaneously, allowing the Freedom to deploy its numerous weapons all at once and fire on a large number of enemy units in a single attack. Its sole weakness is that, due to the design of the Freedom's weapons systems, it can fire only within a very narrow arc directly ahead of the Freedom. ;*METEOR Support Weapons Platform :Like the Justice, the Freedom can dock with the powerful Mobile suit Embedded Tactical EnfORcer(METEOR) support weapon platform, granting it powerful thrusters and an even greater armament consisting of four battleship-class beam cannons, a pair of beam swords large enough to take out most battleships, and a total of 77 heavy missile launchers. Due to its enormous size, this system can only be used in space. ;*N-Jammer Canceller :The Freedom is equipped with a Neutron Jammer Canceller, which counters the effects of the ubiquitous Neutron Jammers and allows these suits to be powered by nuclear reactors. The N-Jammer Canceller works by creating a small field with the Freedom itself at its center, within which the effect of the N-Jammers is negated. This allows it to equip far more beam weapons than would normally be possible for a battery-powered mobile suit and gives it almost limitless combat endurance, even with Phase Shift armor activated. ;*Phase Shift Armor :The Freedom is equipped with Phase Shift armor, rendering it immune to attack by most shell-firing and conventional explosive weaponry. Because its operating time is practically unlimited, the Freedom is able to remain in combat with its Phase-Shift Armor active for far longer than a battery-powered mobile suit. History After acquiring four of the five GAT-series prototype mobile suits developed by the Alliance and Morgenröte, ZAFT began working on reverse-engineering the technology they used and incorporating it in their own mobile suit, resulting in the creation of the new mass-production ZGMF-600 GuAIZ mobile suit. They also began working on a series of even more advanced prototype mobile suits incorporating this technology as well as new technological innovations created by the PLANTs themselves. One of these is the ZGMF-X10A Freedom, which is the second suit of the XA series and can be considered the brother unit of the first unit of that line, the ZGMF-X09A Justice. In May of CE 71, the completed Freedom is stolen by Kira Yamato , with the aid of Lacus Clyne , and taken to Earth where it makes its combat début during Operation Spit-break at the Battle of JOSH-A. Along with the renegade Alliance warship Archangel, ''Kira took the Freedom to Orb, where he engaged against the Alliance during their invasion of that nation, and found himself fighting alongside his old friend Athrun Zala, pilot of the Justice. During the battle of Orb, an attack by the Freedom on one of the Alliance's three new Gundams would miss its target, striking the island where, below and unbeknownst to Kira, 14-year-old Orb national Shinn Asuka and his family are attempting to evacuate. Shinn's parents and his 11-year-old sister Mayu would be killed by the attack, Shinn himself only surviving by chance - an accident that would have significant consequences years later, when the Second Junius War began. As the battle for Orb came to an end, Kira and the Freedom returned to space along with the ''Archangel and Orb battleship Kusanagi, where they met up with the stolen support vessel Eternal. ''Designed exclusively as a support ship for the XA-series, the ship had been commandeered by Lacus Clyne and her supporters, led by former ZAFT commander Andrew Waltfeld, and carried a pair of METEOR support units. Athrun and Kira used the METEORs' firepower to thwart an Earth Alliance nuclear missile attack on the PLANTs on the final day of the war. Afterward, Kira battled against Rau Le Creuset and his ZGMF-X13A Providence, the third and final unit of that series. Though severely damaged by the Providence, Kira ultimately defeated it and killed Le Creuset, just as the ZAFT megaweapon GENESIS fired for the final time. Though the self-detonation of the Justice's nuclear reactor deep within the confines of GENESIS quickly resulted in the beam failing, the Freedom itself was briefly caught in the attack, and the intense gamma radiation literally burned away the Freedom's Phase-Shift. After the war, the Freedom was secretly rebuilt by the Clyne Faction and stored in an underground hangar in Orb, where it remained hidden until the spring of CE 75, when a team of Coordinators in ZAFT mobile suits secretly infiltrated Orb, their objective the assassination of Kira as well as Lacus Clyne. They succeeded only partly, killing Lacus alone. Maddened with grief, guilt and anger, Kira took the Freedom and attacked the enemy mobile suits, easily defeating them all, leaving only their leader, who self-detonated his own mobile suit after being defeated. The Freedom would subsequently abduct Chief Representative Cagalli Yula Athha in a bid to prevent her from marrying Yuna Roma Seiran, and leave Orb along with the ''Archangel. When an Orb fleet, led by the flagship TakemikazuchiDC, is dispatched to aid the Alliance's war against the PLANTs, the Archangel and the Freedom intervened, destroying the Tannhaüser positron cannon of the Minerva ''before it could mow down the Orb ships, severely damaging it. Kira would then engage both the Alliance and Orb mobile suits as well as the ''Minerva's, briefly fighting against the Saviour and Impulse Gundams, then engaging and defeating the Tempest ZAKU Warrior piloted by Rey Za Burrel. ZAFT pilot Heine Westenfluss would also be badly injured in the battle while engaging the Freedom and Gaia Gundams, the latter destroying his mobile suit. The Alliance and Orb fleets withdrew soon afterwards, as did the Archangel ''and the Freedom. Kira and the Freedom would face the ''Minerva crew a second time when the joint Orb/Alliance fleet attacked the ship off the coast of Crete, and the Archangel ''once again intervened in the battle. During this second engagement Kira would find himself engaging, once again, his erstwhile best friend Athrun, a duel that would end with the Saviour's destruction, resulting in critical injuries to its pilot. The battle would end soon afterwards when the Orb fleet, decimated by both Shinn's Impulse Gundam and the ''Minerva's devastatingly powerful anti-ship weaponry including a new supersonic anti-ship missile, is ordered by Cagalli to fall back to Orb. The Freedom would not encounter the Impulse again until the culmination of the mass-bombardment GFAS-X1 Destroy mobile armor's rampage throughout western Eurasia, in which four cities were destroyed and millions were killed. Piloted by Extended Stella Loussier, the mobile armor would suffer critical damage inflicted by the Freedom, destroying it and near-fatally wounding its pilot. The Freedom's final engagement against the Impulse would come some days later when ZAFT launches Operation Angel Down, an operation intended to take down the Archangel ''ordered personally by Supreme Council Chairman Durendal. Having, with assistance from Heine and Athrun, carefully analyzed Kira's combat style and determined a strategy to counter it, Shinn would take advantage of the Impulse's capabilities to successfully destroy the Freedom, moments after the ''Minerva ''succeeded in dealing fatal damage to the ''Archangel. Certain aspects of the Freedom's design and capabilities would also be used by ZAFT late in the war to create new, very different and even more advanced mobile suits: the ZGMF-X42R Destiny Gundam, which ironically would become Shinn's new mobile suit, and the ZGMF-X66R Legend Gundam. Trivia *Freedom's head crest displays the text "X-10A DIECI", which is a reference to its model number. Dieci means ten in Italian. *The Freedom's cockpit is the first in the Cosmic Era to be designed with a panoramic monitor, a characteristic it shares with the ZGMF-X09A Justice and ZGMF-X13A Providence. *The word "'''GUNDAM" is an acronym that denotes its operating system. The version used by the Freedom stands for 'G'eneration 'U'nsubdued 'N'uclear 'D'rive 'A'ssault 'M'odule Category:Mobile Suit